ROMAN CATHOLICISM.

The Wolf family of
West Wolves were prominent recusants in the later
16th and earlier 17th centuries; (fn. 1) the house, like
Bentons Place in Shipley, facilitated concealment by
its remoteness. Nicholas Wolf, his wife, and servants
were presented for receiving communion only once
a year in 1579, (fn. 2) and he and other members of the
family were failing to attend church and to take communion in the 1580s and 1590s. (fn. 3) In 1583 Nicholas
was accused of complicity in Somerville's plot against
the queen and of uttering seditious speeches. By 1585
he was in the Marshalsea prison, (fn. 4) and in 1592
though released he had been disarmed. (fn. 5) In 1594 he
was reported to be a great companion of the recusant
John Leeds of Wappingthorn in Steyning; it was
also then claimed that West Wolves house contained
an altar and mass utensils, and was used for hiding
priests. (fn. 6) Several other parishioners, especially members of the Parker family, were presented for recusancy in the 1620s and in 1640. (fn. 7) The departure of
the Wolfs in 1670 was presumably responsible for the
absence of papists in the parish thereafter. (fn. 8)

Dominicans from France found refuge at Ashington in the early 1870s. (fn. 9)